Alchemist of Zero
by KitsuneSwordsman95
Summary: Ed didn't sacrifice his alchemy to save Al. He gave up his own life. Now after what felt like centuries in the vast plains of nothingness called the void, Ed has been summoned by a young mage in the world of Halkeginia. They will take the world by storm
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys this is KitsuneSwordsman. Ummmm I'm not really sure how this goes. This is my first fanfiction. I noticed a lack of Fullmetal Alchemist and Familiar of Zero Crossovers and by lack I mean an absence of them. Well tell me what you think and as a warning for all you flamers your fires will be used to roast my christmas marshmellows. *yuuuummmm* Okay then enjoy the show... Ed will you do the honors**

**Ed: Yeah sure, KitsuneSwordsman doesn't own Familiar of Zero and isn't awesome enough to own Fullmetal Alchemist.**

**Me: It's true...*sobs patheticly in a corner***

**Ed: Pussy.**

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The void…

A place where time was meaningless…

Looking out into the vast expanse of blinding surrounding me, I sighed heavily. I sat on top of the only other splotch of color in this dreary landscape, aside from myself. It was a large ornate door seemingly made of granite, called a Gate.

I could still remember vividly how I game to be here, in the void. I knew that there were going to be a price to pay for fixing my mistakes. After all, nothing can be gained without something of equal value being presented. That's the first Law of Alchemy; a law I've lived by my entire life. It's a law I am very familiar with, I thought ruefully, rubbing the spot where my shoulder met the rest of my torso. So when I sacrificed myself to save my little brothers life I knew that my soul would be held by Truth instead of Al's. That's why when I arrived in the endless plains of white surrounding I was surprised not to see the sadistic entity greeting me with a sinister smile and laugh. Instead all I saw was…nothing. That's it. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

I sighed again, shifting my body into a more comfortable position. I threw the hood of my long sleeved cloak on top of my head, closing my eyes to try and go to sleep when I heard a voice.

"_O five elemental spirits…"_

My heart stopped for a second, thinking it was Al for a second but then I realized that the voice, while young, sounded nothing like my brothers voice. It was too feminine, proper and practiced, like that of a young noble girl. But still hearing a young voice, filled with such hope and desperation called upon a side of me that had been dead for a long time, my protective older brother side.

"_Find my servant who exists somewhere in the known and unknown universe..."_

Unknown, well the void was certainly unknown, I thought to myself with a dry chuckle. Opening my eyes I felt my stomach drop at what appeared overhead. Above me was a large tear appearing out of nowhere, forming an oval portal that was fifteen feet wide at its widest point. It was large enough to fit my entire gate!

The portal, while oval in shape, looked like a whirlpool on the inside. It emitted a light green glow, the color reminding me of the fields that my brother and I slept in on out travels throughout the countryside. Although why it was there I could only guess. The only clue I had to what the portal was for was the fact that the voice was coming from within the glowing portal. Even as I was pondering the reason for the portal the voice continued on its way.

"_Oh Sacred, beautiful and powerful familiar spirit…"_

Sacred? I snorted at that. As if anything I have ever done in my life could be considered sacred. Sure I had done some good in my life but in the end the good was outweighed by the bad. What man who sentenced his younger brother to a life without the ability to eat, drink, hug his friends, or feel anything from the outside world could be considered sacred? His soul trapped inside of a hulking suit of armor for the rest of his life. It was only my sacrifice in the end that restored him to his former self and even then I failed him. I left him alone, with no other family aside from our estranged father in the world to call his own. But I did the best I could, leaving in the care of people I trusted with my life. Beautiful? Maybe, I mean I did attract quite a few followers in my years serving in the army. Some of them more than a few years older than myself. So I guess I could be called beautiful, even with my large collection of scars and my artificial limbs. Strong? That is a no brainer. I became a State Alchemist at the age of twelve, the youngest ever. I was fighting in wars at the age of thirteen. By the age of seventeen I was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Amestris Army. I sacrificed myself the day I turned eighteen.

"_I desire and here I plead from my heart…"_

Hearing that voice, the voice filled with such desperation, loneliness, and sadness; it caused my brotherly instincts rear their heads again. I felt the need to comfort the owner of the voice, to tell her that she won't be alone anymore, that big brother will be there to protect her. Focusing again on the portal I watched as it began to descend on top of me. As it approached me I felt content and excited, my wanderlust was kicking in again.

"_Answer to my guidance!"_

And so as I lay there, accepting my fate as the portal descended on top of me and my gate, sending me hurtling straight into my next adventure. So once more into the breach…

**Tristian Academy of Magical Arts**

When Louise woke up this morning, she faced the day with equal parts excitement and dread. Today was judgment day for her, the day that decided if she was going to remain here at Tristian Academy of Magical Arts to study the way of the magi, or if she was going to be sent home a failure to be primed a prodded into a model wife to marry off. All for the benefit of the family of course.

Today was the day of the Summoning Ritual, an ancient rite that was passed down from each generation of nobles to the next. Today was the day mages summoned a familiar to aid them in their journey to adulthood, as well as show them their elemental alignment. For a person like Louise today is the day that she finds out whether or not everyone was right about her…about her being nothing but a zero.

Louise the Zero, that's her nickname. The name used by her peer to mock and belittle her throughout her years at the school. It came from the sad fact that every single spell she had ever attempted to perform had, quite literally, blown up in her face. Every single spell ended in an explosion so big that the school had a special pool of funds used to fix her 'explosive' mistakes. The only person ever to use that nickname in a non scornful way was Kirche von Zerbst. Zerbst and she had a…odd relationship. Sometimes they acted like sisters, other times they acted like the bitter enemies their families were. But mostly they acted like rivals, always trying to out do the other in everything they do from spell casting to flirting with boys. Unfortunately for Louise, Kirche was ahead of her on both accounts.

Thinking of Kirche reminded of the stupid thing Louise did last night. She had, in full view of their entire class, told Kirche that she was going to receive a beautiful, powerful sacred familiar and that it was going to be better that hers in every way. That was the most idiotic thing she had ever done in her entire life.

As the day went on and the summoning rite fast approached, Louise began to feel more anxious and nervous than she had ever in her existence. When the class began to go through the summoning rites Louise felt her self built confidence take a hit with every successful summoning another student performed. Her confidence took a dive when Kirche summoned a Salamander as her familiar and it plummeted when Kirche's friend Tabitha summoned a dragon... a freaking DRAGON!

It was finally her turn to summon and Louise was a nervous wreck. Even as she walked up to what could possibly be the end to her career as a mage; she walked with her head held high, back straight, pretending that she didn't hear her peers hurtful words. Pretending that she didn't hear her schoolmates call her a failure, a screw up, a zero.

Louise walked over to the clearing in front of her gathered classmates where her teacher, a kind glasses wearing man by the name of Colbert, stood patiently waiting for his final student to finish the summoning rite. Professor Colbert knew of her reputation for explosions, so when she started her incantation the balding man took it upon himself to position himself outside of her range.

"_Oh five elemental spirits,"_ she began, her voice shaking in desperation and hope, _"Find my servant who lives somewhere in the known and unknown universe! Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here I plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!"_

For a moment there was nothing, not a spark, not an explosion, just nothing. And then just as the first of one of her more zealous mockers was about to open his fat mouth to belittle the young mage-in-training the clearing around Louise began to glow a bright green color as a glowing circle over forty feet across appeared on the flat dirt. The circle was strange, some of it she recognized from the alchemy classes that the Academy held sometimes but most of it was so complicated that she couldn't make heads or tails of it. It was breathtakingly beautiful, so ornate and complex that it looked almost like a painting.

Suddenly a blinding blue light emerged from the center of the circle, not ten feet away from where she was standing, causing her and her classmates to cover their eyes in order to keep from going blind. The light was accompanied by the sound of fabric ripping, just like that of a transmutation.

When the light cleared and they were able to lower their arms, the sight that greeted them shocked them. There standing high in the middle of what was once a clear field was a thirty foot tall ornate obelisk. No, it was a door, a large ornate, freestanding door. Louise felt the door call to her, beckoning her to touch it, to feel it, to open it and reveal what was inside to the world.

Laughter filled the clearing as what had just happened finally reached the brains of the more cruel students and more and more joined in as it became increasingly clear that Louise the Zero had failed yet again. Kirche laughed halfheartedly as she looked at her friend/rival worried about how she was taking this.

Louise ignored the jeering, lost in her own world as she got closer and closer to the door, her hand reaching out to push it open when a voice rang throughout the clearing, snapping her out of her trance.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The class grew silent as they all started looking for the owner of the voice. They were unsuccessful until they heard the voice, a distinctly male baritone voice at that, sound off again.

"Oh fur die Liebe Gottes? Up here, Idioten!" They all looked up at the top of the door, only to see a red hooded cloaked figure sitting on top of the tall object. Startled, they all panicked when the figure jumped off of the door, landing without a sound in a crouch inches in front of Louise.

Said noble jumped back away from him as the man, they assumed it was a man, rose up to his full height, standing a full head taller than the young Valliere. "What did you call us?" she asked, remembering the comment he said but not knowing the meaning.

Instead of the mysterious man, it was instead her rival who answered her. "He said 'For the love of God,' and then called us all idiots, I think," the tall busty red head told the young pinket. Seeing Louise give her a look, Kirche continued, "Hey it's a very old dialect of Germania. It's not even spoken in my country anymore!"

"Then how do you know it?"

"I got bored one day and decided to learn a new language," was the answer.

"As riveting as this conversation," the man began, earning two very heated glares from the bickering girls for interrupting, "I'm afraid I can't let you open this Gate."

'So it is a Gate?' Were Professor Colbert's private thoughts 'I thought this branch of alchemy was a dead art? So how is it that a girl with no elemental affinity or skill in magic is capable of summoning such a powerful tool? I need to do more research on this.'

"And why is that?" The young Valliere bristled, glaring death upon this commoner who dared to tell her what she could or couldn't do.

"Because it's disappearing as we speak."

Looking up in horror, Louise found what the commoner said to be true. The very existence of the Gate was crumbling to dust before her very eyes. The only accomplishment she had ever achieved, gone. It was almost enough to make her cry.

"Now why the long face little one?" the man asked, crouching in front of her. "I mean you still have me." She looked up at him in confusion, wondering what he meant by that when she finally connected the dots. Summoning… door appearing… mysterious stranger appearing on top of said door… SHE SUMMONED A COMMONER!

Apparently one of her classmates, a blond pretty boy by the name of Guiche, came to the same conclusion she did. "Hahahaha, Louise summoned a commoner, I bet he's ugly too. That's probably why he has his hood up," he mocked before breaking out into laughter. He was quickly joined by most of the class in his mocking of Louise but once again they were silenced quickly when the man stood back up again, pulled down his hood and moved the edges of his coat to the side. Louise felt her breath get caught in her throat and an unfamiliar heat appeared on her cheeks as she gazed upon her familiar.

He was, to put it simply, breathtaking. His long golden hair was pulled into a ponytail with two bangs framing his angular and chiseled face on which was a smirk, like he knew everything and they knew nothing. His strange eyes were two pools of molten gold that were as unsettling as they were beautiful. His form was wiry and muscular, built for power without sacrificing speed in the process. He wore a long sleeved red hooded cloak with a symbol of a cross with a snake woven through it and under that he wore a black form fitting long sleeved shirt with black trousers and steel toed combat boots. On his hands were a pair of white gloves.

Shaking the shock of her familiars appearance off, Louise turned to look to her teacher for guidance. The look she received was enough. It said, 'do it or else you're done for.' She had to complete the ritual or else she would never be a mage. Oh well beggars can't be choosers, she thought to herself with a grimmance, mentally preparing herself for the bonding ceremony. She glared at him, "You better be greatful for this, most commoners would go their whole lives without this honor."

She walked over to the still smirking blond and raised her wand into the air, causeing the smirk to be accompanied by a raised eyebrow. Louise placed her wand on the mans forehead, shocking him for a moment, before incanting,

"_Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; grant your blessings upon this humble being, and make him my familiar."_

What happened next shocked even her; she reached up, grabbed her familiar by his collar and forcefully pulled his lips onto hers. He pulled away in an instant, eyes wide and eyebrow twitching.

"What the fu-AAAAHHHHHHHH!" His question dissolved into a deafening scream of pain. He felt as if his entire being was on fire, like someone had poured molten lava through his veins. The last thing he saw before he blacked out, were glowing runes on the backside of his left hand. And then nothing.

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**Well thats all for now. Remember to REVIEW!**

**Bye...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Me: Hey guys its me Kitsune! I just want to thank everyone who reviewed and visited this story. It really means a lot to me and I'd like to thank these people who reviewed; so DragonBlade00, Slayer End, saddas74, Pedro Boncompagni, Lord Edric, soefon, PEJP Bengtzone V2, Lunatic Pandora1, Fanking2, SuperNatura1, Robo Reader 21, bakapervert, Gamazek, and manatarms1989. Thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews. Now on to the desclaimer, Ed would you be so kind?**

**Ed: No, get the f#k off your lazy ass and do it yourself.**

**Me: Don't make me get Winry out here...**

**Ed: *shiver* you wouldn't dare!**

**Me: Try me b!#h.**

**Ed: Fine. *turns to readers* KitsuneSwordsman95 doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemst or Familiar of Zero. They both belong to there respective owners. *turns back to me* There are you happy now.**

**Me: Not quite. Oh Winry.**

**Wrench flies out of nowhere and nails Ed in the face.**

**Me: Thanks babe. *Another wrench flies out and nails me in the face* Ahhh shit that hurts.**

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When I fell to the ground in the middle of the clearing, surrouded by all the strange looking people and what looked like a collection of normal animals and chimeras, I felt a torrent of energy foreign to my being coursed throughout my body. The alien power fought against my own alchemeic energy momentarily before the two found a balance and settled down. This all happened as I was falling unconscious.

With the power came a virtual flood of images and information about the land I arrived in and its customs. I learned about the four great powerhouse nations; Germania to the east, Albion to the northwest, the countries of Gallia and Romalia to the south, and Tristain, the land I am in now, in the center. The lands were collectively known as Halkeginia. The ruling class of this land was the noble class and above them were the monarchs. However the one thing that stood out the most to me wasn't the existence of the noble class, it was the fact that in order for someone to be considered a noble they had to be capable of using magic. Not alchemy but real life magic, like the stuff in my moms bedtime stories. The thing that I don't like about this whole 'magic' thing was the fact that it completely spit on the 1st Law of Alchemy, a law that my brother and I worked tirelessly to follow in our quest to get out bodies back after the alchemeic rebound that ruined our lives. I also gained knowledge about the familiars that these 'mages' use, and the fact that I was pretty much a slave now to some prissy, noble-blooded little kid who probably have never had to work a day in their life. Unnoticed to me at the time, my heart rate sped up drastically the more I thought about it, almost sending me into cardiac arrest

My inner ranting was interrupted when voices suddenly began to pierce through the veil of unconsciousness surrounding me. The first of the voices was young, feminine, and carried an edge to it that I've only ever heard in nobility.

"-e okay Professor Colbert?"

"I don't think so Louise. Montmorency go fetch Dr Catalina from the medicine hall and quickly," I heard an older voice this time, one filled with power and wisdom, the type that comes with experiences that would of broken lesser men. For some reason the second voice helped calm me down, reminding me of my time in the military. As I pondered my reasons for this the voice continued, "Guiche help me carry him inside."

"By the Founder this guy weighs a lot for such a skinny guy," a new voice, male and filled with arrogance and contempt, spoke. Even as I felt my body rise to a standing position I resisted the urge to slap the pompous fool upside the head, not that I had the energy or the clarity of mind to do so.

I gained a feeling of weightlessness, as if I was being lifted off the ground and somehow my semi-conscious mind came to the conclusion that I was being carried, most likely to either a prison cell or a hospital, depending on where I was. Wondering about where I was reminded me again of my situation, enraging me further and sending my heart rate skyrocketing.

"I'm here Colbert what seems to be the- oh good heavens, what the devil happened to this young fellow," I felt my body being put down on top of a semi-soft mattress as a warm gentle hand pressed against my forehead, "He's burning up and his pulse is like a galloping horse, I'm going to need bags of a couple bags of ice at the very least to calm him down. Help me get his shirt and jacket off so the ice can have more contact with his skin."

I felt the clothing on my upper body being stripped away and as the cold air hit my naked torso I heard a pair of shocked gasps.

"Dear Founder…"

"Well that explains why he was so heavy to lift."

"How is this possible? I mean I know that some of the more wealthy nobles can afford prosthetic limbs but there are none that are as intricate and lifelike as this one. It almost looks like an actual arm!"

The man tsked, "That's not what I'm worried about right now Catalina. For now you just focus on keeping this boy alive. I'll go get the Headmaster; maybe he can shed some light on the situation at hand…"

That was the last thing I heard before I was enveloped by the sweet, sweet embrace of unconsciousness. But before the dark claimed me completely I gave off one last smirk, thinking to myself that things are never boring for long around me…

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**Outside of the Medicine Hall**

Louise was at her wits end. First she summons a large ornate Gate, on top of which was a red cloaked commoner. Secondly, the Gate completely disappears, leaving her with just the commoner to show as her proof of completing the summoning ritual. A handsome commoner but a commoner nevertheless. Then she has to kiss said commoner, giving up her first kiss to a man she didn't even know. And then the commoner collapses, causing her professor to call for the nurse as he himself carried the boy in. Now here she was, pacing outside of the Medicine Hall like a worried mother hen. She had absolutely no idea what was going on!

"Relax Zero; I'm sure your familiar is fine, right Flame?" came the sly sensuous voice of her only companion at the time and sometimes friend sometimes rival, Kirche von Zerbst.  
She and her salamander familiar Flame followed Louise in after their professor took her familiar inside and had been waiting outside of the Medicine Hall with her. People looked at the two girls and saw complete opposites; where Louise was short, pale, and skinny, Kirche was tall, tanned, and full-figured. Where her hair was a pale pink color, Kirches hair was a dark, vibrant orange-red. Even their personalities were opposites; Louise was prim and proper, the vivid image of a blueblood noble, while Kirche was a sensuous creature, one who always searched for love. Unfortunately her many attempts at finding her one true love, combined with the actions of young men with their prides hurt, gave her the image of a seductress who would anything to get with the man she wanted. There were only a few people in the entire school who knew this to be false; they were Professor Colbert, Headmaster Osmond, her bluenette friend Tabitha, and her rival Louise. Everyone else saw her as the seductress others claimed her of being. In truth she wasn't bothered by it, to her it doesn't matter what others think of you as long as you were confidant in yourself.

"What do you mean by that Zerbst?" Louise asked the taller girl with a glare in her rose colored eyes.

Kirches chocolate colored eye, the one not covered by her bangs, sparkled in amusement as she pet the spiny head of her large familiar. "I think it's obvious," she intoned teasingly.

Louise felt her eyes narrow further. "What's obvious?"

"The fact that you're smitten with that commoner," Kirche all but sang those words, no wait…yeah she did sing them.

The shorter girl blushed furiously, and only got redder when Kirche continued, "I mean did you see that body, and those eyes…oooohhhhh they were so breathtaking."

"Kirche!" Louise gasped, astonished that her sometimes friend/rival would say such a thing.

"What? I'm just saying…" she trailed off as the Headmaster walked out of the Medicine Hall with a frown on his face. "What's wrong Headmaster Osmond?" Kirche asked him, shaking the older man out of his thoughts.

"Ahhh young Zerbst, how are you my dear?"

"Eyes up old man," went the practiced response.

The old pervert attempted to defend himself, saying something about being old and a lazy eye but Louise and Kirche just tuned him out. He how ever got back their attention when he mentioned the commoner Louise had summoned.

"How is he? Did you figure out what was wrong?" Louise asked desperately, hoping against all hope that she didn't somehow screw the bonding familiar ceremony and end up killing her familiar. She breathed a sigh of relief when he told her that the young man was alright and he was getting dressed as they spoke.

Further questioning was put to the side when the commoner they were speaking of walked out of the door, a small smirk on his face. He turned to face the Headmaster, ignoring the two girls at the moment. "Excuse me, but can you tell me where I can find my summoner? I don't believe we've introduced ourselves to one another."

Kirche was speechless, her mind struggling to compute the image it was receiving. From afar the golden locked commoner looked good but up close he was absolutely stunning. Even from here she could see those delicious muscles rippling with every movement, showing her that this commoner, whoever he was, was ripped, she thought with a blush barely visible on her tanned face.

Louise wasn't doing much better, but when she heard how her familiar spoke to the Headmaster she bristled slightly. 'Who the void does he think he is, speaking to a noble like that?' Just as she was about to go off on him, Osmond laughed and gestured towards her with a smile.

"Here she is. Louise, I would like you to meet your new familiar, Edward Elric. Edward I this is Louise Valliere, the young lady who summoned you. Now you two get along now," he said almost chidingly, like he knew that they were going to argue. (A/N He has no idea how right he is LOL XD)

Bowing slightly, Edward took Louise's left hand in his own and lightly brushed his lips against the skin. "Charmed I'm sure, and please call me Ed," he finished with a smirk.

Louise yanked her hand back, holding it tight against her side, as her face grew increasingly red7 in both anger and embarrassment. 'H-how dare he?' she thought to herself, seeing a blanket of red cover the picture her eyes were receiving.

Sensing the approaching shit-storm on their radars, both the Headmaster and Kirche quickly and quietly said their goodbyes and vacated the area, but not without one last look by Kirche.

Even with all the warning signs presented to him, Ed didn't recognize the danger that was an enraged Louise de la Valliere as he just continued talking. "Now I do believe we need to speak of our living arrangements, young lady. For example will I be sleeping in separate sleeping quarters or am I going to-"

"Now you listen here familiar!" the young pinket interrupted rudely, putting special emphasis on the word familiar. "You will not speak to me in that tone. If you are going address me in any fashion it will not be 'young lady' it will me mistress. Do you understand me?" She finished, looking at the taller man with a cross look.

"Umm, aren't you a little young to be into that S&M type stuff?" Ed sweat dropped.

Louise began choking on her own saliva when she heard that. "What?" she exclaimed shocked that a commoner would dare accuse her of such a thing. "Do you have any idea who you are speaking to?"

Ed shrugged, "Not really."

She held her head high, nose in the air. "I am Louise François le Blanc de la Vallière of the Vallière Family." She spoke in a loud clear voice, obviously proud of her heritage.

"And I care, why exactly?" he deadpanned, a bored look in his amber gold eyes.

This shocked Louise more than ever. Her family was one of the five wealthiest and most powerful noble families in all of Tristian, and ranked in the top fifteen in the world. The idea that some commoner from Tristian, judging by his hair and skin color, didn't know who her family was scandalous to her. She voiced her thoughts, "How could you not know who my family is?"

Her familiar shrugged yet again, "Its not like I really care that much about authority figures. And I'm guessing that you're of a noble family. Ergo I'm not going to care for your family that much. It's a very simple concept." He finished with just a hint of a smirk.

Seeing that his 'master' wasn't responding, instead giving a damn good impression of a fish out of water, Ed decided to begin looking for a place to stay. So he turned and began walking down the hallway, smirking the whole way. 'Well this will be an interesting ride,' he thought to himself, putting his hands behind his head as he nonchalantly walked away from his still somewhat comatose keeper.

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**And thats a wrap. Please remember to review. Oh and give me your opinion as to who Ed should be paired with. Adios mi amigos.**

**p.s. REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Me: Hey guys welcome back to another episode of Alchemist of Zero. Firstly i would like to thank those of you who reviewed. I really appreciate it and they really helped me churn out this next chapter. So without any further adue let the chapter comence.**

**I don't own anything that has to do with Fullmetal Alchemist or Familiar of Zero. If i did Ed would be a pimp and turn lust over to his side. Just sayin.**

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As he walked around the premises of the Academy looking for a place to stay, Ed could feel the headache he was about to get. Sighing, the golden eyed man looked outside a passing window and saw that it was already dark, and there were two moons outside instead of the one he was used to seeing. There was a larger

"Wow I must have been out longer than I thought," he mumbled to himself. The young alchemist then remembered the conversation he had with the schools headmaster, a nice older gentleman by the name of Osmond.

_**(Flashback)**_

_**Ed knew he was awakening before he actually did, due to the fading of the darkness surrounding him. He opened his eyes and groaned, closing the bright light hurting his eyes. For some reason the people who lay him on the bed didn't take into account the fact that the sun would be glaring down on him when he woke up. 'Dammit what happened?' the golden haired youth thought to himself.**_

_**As if reading his mind he heard an old wizened voice tell him, "You had a heart attack my young friend."**_

_**Looking over on the side of his bed he wasn't surprised to see an old wrinkled face staring back at him. The old man sitting next to the bed had a kind face, one weathered by the sands of time. He also sported a ridiculously long white beard that was seemingly connected to his hair. The old man wore a dark woolen cloak and on his shoulder was a small white mouse. Next to him stood the man from the clearing and now that he had a better look at him Ed could see that though he had a gentle demeanor that the balding man had steel in his blue eyes. He was somewhat taller than the old man, with dark gray hair framing the bald spot that covered the top of his head. The man, who was obviously a member of the staff here wore a navy blue robe with white edging and a white stripe going down the front of it. On the other side of the bed stood a youngish woman, maybe in her early thirties, with blue eyes and blond hair not unlike Ed's own hair but a lighter tone who was giving Ed a look he hated… pity. She wore a basic nurse's outfit, informing him that she was the one who took care of him.**_

"_**Can I help you old man?" Ed asked, not caring if he sounded rude, "and what do you mean I had a heart attack?"**_

"_**That's what we're wondering, among other things," it was the younger man who spoke this time.**_

_**Ed's eyes narrowed at that, "What exactly do you mean by other things?" His tone, while polite, was laced with a dangerous intent that made the robe wearing man noticeably straighten. 'So he is military, I'm going to have to be careful with him.'**_

_**The old man noticed the rising tension in the air and attempted to diffuse it. "Now, now, now hold on a second, we were just wondering who you are and how you came to be here. And we wish to know about that," he finished pointing at Ed's right arm.**_

_**At that moment Ed noticed that it was cold in here and, looking down, saw that he was naked from the waist up, exposing his automail arm for the entire world to see. His golden eyes narrowed into a glare. "I don't think that's any of your business old man," he snarled, not happy at being reminded of his greatest mistake.**_

_**Alarmed by this reaction, the old man tried again. "Let's start over. My name is Osmond and I'm the headmaster at the Tristian Academy of Magical Arts, where we are now. Next to me is my colleague Professor Jan Colbert, a square class fire mage. The woman on the other side of the bed by you is Doctor Jean Catalina, she is also a square class mage but uses water instead of fire like my friend here," the old man spoke plainly, gesturing to each person respectively.**_

_**For a second Ed just stared at them before he grunted and responded himself, "Edward Elric, call me Ed."**_

_**Nodding, Osmond turned to face Professor Colbert. "Now Jan, can you please tell me exactly what you saw out there?"**_

"_**Thank you Headmaster," the kind looking man said before going into a very militant like report. "At approximately 1400 hours Ms Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière of the Vallière family succesfully completed the summoning rite, abet an old one that hasn't been used in centuries. However instead of the normal explosion, like the usual ones that take place during class…"**_

"_**Hold up," Ed inturrupted. "You mean to tell me that there is a young girl here, one probably not even seventeen years old now, is causing explosions on a regular basis…and you're doing nothing to stop it?" he asked, shocked that they would let something like that continue to happen.**_

_**But the Headmaster just waved his concerns. "Its no concern Mr Elric. Now Professor please continue." He asked, ignoring Eds cry of 'just call me Ed.'**_

"_**Right, as I was saying before I was rudely inturrupted," he glared at Ed, who just smirked at him. "However instead of the explosion a soft green light began emmiting from the earth that then began to increase in intensity before making a disernable shape," he paused.**_

"_**What is it Colbert?"**_

"_**Sir I'm not sure how to put this without freaking you out. I was barely able to hold my shock and awe in so that the student wouldn't be afraid."**_

_**The old man chuckled. "Surely you jest."**_

"_**I'm dead serious old man, this thing scared the shit out of me." That got the Headmasters attention fore he knew that Colbert didn't curse often, and when he did he was usually dead serious.**_

"_**What was it Colbert?" the Headmaster, spoke softly, curiosity drenching his words. He was surprised when his answer came not from his colleague but instead from Ed.**_

"_**A transmutation circle," Osmond looked over to Ed in shock, a shock that was shared by both Catalina and Colbert.**_

"_**How do you know about transmutation circles? Only a square class mage could even attempt to do a transmutation and even then it is highly inefficiant." The Headmaster gave Ed an apraising look, "Plus you have to many scars to be a noble, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a person with more scars than you. Would you like to tell us how you got a few of them?"**_

_**Eds mood noticably darkened, "I think not old man."**_

"_**Ahh such a shame. I'm sure you would have some fantastic war stories Anyway Colbert please continue."**_

"_**Thank you Headmaster but I think we should let our guest take over from here on out. I'll pick up where he lets off." The two of them, including Dr. Catalina who had been silent the whole time, turned to look at Ed.**_

_**Ed gave them a look that clearly said, 'do I have to do this?'**_

_**The glares he received told him, 'yes, yes you do.'**_

_**Sighing the young alchemist nodded his complacency. Clearing his throat Ed began speaking, "Alright. I didn't get a clear look at the array but I do believe that it is a basic 'portal' transmutation circle, abet an extremely over powered and complicated one."**_

_**Seeing the blank look on all of their faces, Ed sighed again. 'Its like I'm speaking to a bunch five year olds,' He thought to himself. He then proceded to explain in the simplest terms possible for him. "Okay just think of the circle as a means of creating a doorway, however theoretically if you the doorway flooded the doorway with enough energy while simultaniously putting in several different failsafes and modifying to act somewhat like a 'bridge' transmutation circle, which is used to cross or send supplies over vast distances. In threory using both of these circles together would result in a gate that would be able to transport or retrieve something that didn't exist here for some reason. Take me example…" Seeing the baffled looks on their faces, Ed continued, "Before I came here I was in a place know as the realm of Truth, the place that stores all of the knowledge of alchemy, both the known practices and those lost in the sands of time. The only wasys to enter such a place is to encroach on the territory of god. For the little girl who summoned to do so would require an immense amount of power. Is she a prodigy here?" Hearing a cough Ed looked up to see that Colbert and Osmond were struggling not to laugh while Catalina gave the two of them a cross glare. "Whats so funny?" He asked the two laughing teachers, but that just made them laugh harder. Seeing that Osmond and Colbert weren't going to answer his question, Ed turned to Dr Catalina.**_

_**She sighed. "Louise is actually one of our worst students, at least when it comes to practicals. Her nickname is Louise the Zero, because she has never sucessfully cast a single spell."**_

_**Ed deadpanned. "You mean that the person who summoned not only me, but my Gate as well, straight out of the realm of Truth, without having to pay a toll, is considered a failure here? What the fuck is up with that?"**_

_**All he got in return was a shrug from the woman as the two men on the other side were just finishing their little laugh-fest. Osmond was still wiping tears from his eyes when he voiced his next question.**_

"_**Now that we have covered how you got here I'm sure you're wondering why you are here?"**_

"_**I know why I'm here Headmaster. I'm here to be that little girl's, Louise you said her name was, familiar," Ed replied curtly, obviously not happy at being a sixteen year old girl's glorified slave.**_

"_**Why are you calling her a little girl? You couldn't be a year older than her," came the response from Dr Catalina.**_

"_**WHO'S-SO-SMALL-HE-COULD-DROWN-IN-A-DROP-OF-WATER!" Ed exploded from his laying position, swinging his fists wildly before he finally calmed down. Composing himself Ed continued. "Sorry, its an old habit. And for your information I am eighteen years old, I think," they gave him a look, "Hey you try to keep track of the time when your in the realm of Truth, where there is no way to track the number of minutes past let alone days. I'm going by how long my body seems to have aged, who knows how long my mind was in there. I'm also a veteran of war and a master alchemist at that. Compared to me, anyone without at least a decade of battle experience or someone a hundred or so years old like you grandpa, is a kid to me."**_

_**The Headmaster raised a white bushy eyebrow at that. "Oh really, what do you mean by master alchemist?"**_

"_**You guys live in a world where magic is commonplace and you don't believe in alchemy?" Ed seemed shocked by that.**_

"_**No we believe in alchemy. Its just no one has been considered a master alchemist in well over two thousand years, and even then there was nothing as large or sophisticated as the one that appeared in the cortyard. For you to come out and say that you are a master alchemist is shocking news indeed."**_

_**Letting that sink in, the Headmaster turned his attention to Dr. Catatlina, "Is Ed able to be discharged doctor?"**_

_**Going over the young alchemist one more time, the good doctor nodded in complience. "Yes, as long as he doesn't push himself too far he should be fine. Do you hear me young man? You don't push yourself you hear?" She finished shoving her finger in Ed's nose.**_

_**Pushing her hand away, Ed grunted. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it old hag."**_

"_**WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN OLD HAG!" she screamed, the flames of hell erupting from behind her and her eyes glowing in a hellish light.**_

"_**Ummmm I wasn't talking to you," Ed answered back lamely, sweatdrop forming on the back of his head.**_

"_**Oh okay," she said happily, previous anger forgotten.**_

'_**Are all women bipolar or something,' he thought to himself, recalling how even when Winry was pissed off the mere mention of automail would make her as happy as a cat with catnip.**_

"_**Can I have my clothes back now?" He asked, remembering his nakedness. Nodding the Dr went to go fetch his clothes. Turning back to the Headmaster and Professor Colbert Ed asked them if they could keep his alchemy and automail a secret for now. When asked why he replied t the hat its good to have an 'ace in the hole.' They agreed and after Catalina returned with his clothes Ed asked her the same thing.**_

"_**Of course honey," she said, "I know how you boys are with your toys."**_

_**Not knowing what that meant by that but thankful for her complying with him. So Ed proceeded to get dressed; first putting on his black sleevless shirt, then a black jacket with silver lining along the edges that buttoned at the top. After putting on those items Ed equiped himself with a pair of white gloves and then shrugged on his, handmade thigh length blood red, long sleeved, hooded cloak. On the back of his cloak is the picture of a snake entwined with a cross, the flamel symbol, the symbol of his teacher.**_

_**Now fully dressed Ed looked at the Headmaster, smirking slightly. "Now lets meet that summoner of mine."**_

_**Smirking slightly as well, Osmond stepped outside though the doorway. Walking behind him, Ed paused in front of the doorway when he heard Colbert call his name.**_

"_**Ed," he said, "Please don't be too mad at Louise. Se is just as much a victim as you are."**_

"_**I'll keep that in mind soldier," Ed's eyes softened just a little and his smirk turned into a smile. The smile turned back into a smirk when he saw Colbert stiffen slightly. "How did I know?" Ed asked for him. Mutely the fire mage nodded, which made Ed's smirk grow. "You're posture. It screams combat experience. May ask what rank you were when you left the service?"**_

_**There was a pause. "Jean 'Flame Snake' Colbert, Captian in the Mantacore Knights, under the command of Karin of the Heavy Wind, you?"**_

_**Dr. Catalina gaped at him in shock, not knowing that her colleague had been in such a high position in the army. What Ed said next almost made her choke on her own saliva.**_

"_**Lieutenant Colonel**__** Edward 'Fullmetal' Elric, State Alchemist of the Amestris Military."**_

_**That gave both of them pause. The idea that such a young man could hold such a high military office was staggering to them. They were silent as Edward turned to leave and the silence continued even after he left. Finally Dr. Catalina turned to Professor Colbert, "You just got outdone by a person almost half your age." The doctor then walked away, leaving the fire mage to his sulking.**_

_**(End Flashback)**_

Shaking himself out of his musing, Ed found himself hopelessly lost. Looking around he found a young girl, maybe a year younger than him, dusting a vase. Walking over to her, he attempted to get her attention.

"Excuse me miss…"

* * *

Work as a maid at the Academy was hard. It wasn't particularly difficult; it was just long and tedious hours while also avoiding being noticed by some of the more unsavory of the students. It didn't help that Siesta was around their age and a very beautiful woman in her own right, something she tried desperately to downplay. She stood a little taller than five feet with black hair that went down to the back of her neck. Her bangs came down slightly over her steel blue eyes and offset her creamy white skin very nicely. She had a very curvy body, which along with her generous bust made it somewhat dangerous to be working among teenage nobles who could do anything barring murdering her outright and get away with little more that a slap on the wrist but her parents need the money, her being the oldest of eight siblings. In order to remain unnoticed she dressed herself down, making her curves as unnoticeable as possible, and avoided coming in contact with the males of the academy, knowing that if she was advanced on and she refused the noble would just overpower her, take what he wanted, and ruin her family for making him work for it. The mere thought of such a thing forced tears into her eyes so she distracted herself by thinking of the novel waiting for her in her room.

'Oh I can't wait till my shift is over. I had just reached the part where the noble and his maid sweetheart meet for the first time. She was just standing there, dusting a picture when he came up behind her and said…' her inner monologue was interrupted when she heard a voice behind her.

"Excuse me miss…" She froze at the voice, that delightfully regal masculine tenor voice. The kind of voice that haunted her dreams of being swept away by a noble to be his lovely bride, just like in her novels. She knew it wasn't a student here, the voice wasn't pompous or overbearing like any of the young noblemen here and it wasn't a member of the faculty, as she knew all of their voices. So finally the young maid turned around slowly, ready to run if the man behind her tries to take advantage of her.

Siesta felt her breath hitch in her throat as she looked into the amber gold eyes of the man in front of her. He was young, maybe a year or so older than her and wearing a red cloak on top of black underclothes and pristine white gloves. He was a little bit taller than her, with golden blond hair that seemed to glow in the moonlight, like a halo. Not the pale blond that most of the nobles have in Tristian but golden like his hair was bathed in the precious metal. His hair was long, longer than hers, and his face was chiseled, masculine. On it was a small smirk that sent her heart galloping like a breakaway horse. His smirk only grew when she realized she was staring.

"I-is there any thing I could help you with milord?" she asked timidly as she curtsied as best as she could holding a duster in her hands. Although she didn't know if the man before her was a noble or not Siesta felt it was safer to assume that he was, and judging on the quality of the clothes he wore she was right.

"Now, now…lets have none of that," the man said gently, making the young maid blush hotly at his words. 'Oh Brimir, it's just like one of my novels!' she thought with a silent squeal. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost missed what the noble said next.

"You see I'm new here and I was wondering if you could direct me to where I can receive lodging miss…" he trailed off, obviously asking for her name.

"Oh I'm sorry milord. My name is Siesta Takeo and I would be happy to escort you to one of the guest rooms," Siesta blushed yet again only this time it was from embarrassment.

"Nice to meet you Siesta, my name is Edward Elric. And that's quite alright my dear all you need to do is point me in the right direction and I'll figure it out from there." All the blushing maid could do was point down the hall as Edward turned to leave but not before throwing a thank you and a smirk on his way down the hall. As Edward turned around the corner Siesta felt her knees weaken and leaned up against the wall for support. She put her free hang on her burning cheeks, whisper/screeching, "Kyyyyaaaaa."

* * *

After speaking with that nice maid, Ed continued walking down the hall eventually coming to a courtyard. Effectively giving up on his quest to find a bed to sleep in, Ed just focused on figuring out where he was roughing it. Finding a tree with a relatively low branch Ed silently climbed up the trunk of the tree, unnoticed by the pair of lovers on the other side of the courtyard. Looking over he saw rather pompous blond haired boy with blue eyes wearing a black cloak wooing a younger looking black haired girl wearing a brown cloak. His lines were good but Ed couldn't help but think that they were too… what's the word… practiced.

"Oh Katie," he heard the blond hair boy proclaim, "Your soufflé must simply be divine, much like yourself. You have to make some for me."

"You're just saying that," she replied modestly.

"Oh contrary my lady, I would never lie to your eyes."

'Oh god he's worse than Mustang. At least Mustang was smooth about it,' Ed thought to himself as he settled in, wrapping his cloak around him and pulling up his hood. As he fell asleep Ed remembered all of the good times he spent with his friends, his family. Smiling slightly, Ed hunkered down, closed his eyes and drifted off into the realm of his dreams to destroy milk and kick Mustangs ass.

* * *

**Alright thats the end of chapter three. Please be patient with me, next chapter will have all your daily doses of asskicking in it. Oh and before anyone asks the reason Ed didn't just transmutate a house is he was in the middle of a courtyard and he wants to keep it a secret for now.**

**See yall later and remember to review.**

**P.S. if you want to vote on the pairing there is a poll on my profile page and there is another poll on whether or not the Homulucus are brought in and which ones.**


	4. Authors Note Sorry

**Okay guys sorry for doing this to yall but I really need a beta. And since I have no idea how to find one online I was wondering if any of you guys would like to help me. If you can't, no biggie but if you can that would be a lifesaver. Pm me if you're interested. Kay bye guys. Oh and the fight scene is coming up next. Wish me luck**


	5. Chapter 4

**Me: Hey guys I'm back! I know yall missed me :) Sorry about the beta thing, i'm not looking for one anymore. A close friend of mine offered and i couldn't refuse. Fyi this is yalls christmas present, i'm not going to be writing for a little bit so i can spend time with my family over the holidays. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to those of you who were worried about Ed being over powered i'm planning on bringing in 7 very familiar faces to either help or hurt him.**

**Ed: What the hell man? It was hard enough to kill them the first time now you're gonna bring them back!**

**Me: Yep. Lifes a bitch aint it.**

**Any way here is the long awaited chapter four of Alchemist of Zero.**

**Don't mind this second post I was just fixing some errors and adding a little to the fight scene.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except the clothes on my back... no wait these are loans.**

* * *

That night, Louise dreamed of a pair of brothers. She saw the older of the two, a boy around the age of two or three, become ecstatic when a very beautiful brunette woman, his mother, told him he was going to have a little brother. She saw the confusion and the tears that made their way into his eyes when an older man with blonde hair and golden eyes, his father, left them without a single excuse or even a goodbye to his family.

"Mommy where is daddy going?" he asked her as she held his little brother, not even 4 years old then, tight to her bosom. She just sighed and shook her head sadly, telling him that he will understand when he's older. "Okay," he said, not knowing what it meant but trusting his mother's word.

The scene faded and came in to focus on the boy, now a few years older, playing with another boy a year younger than him in the meadows surrounding the town. She saw them running up to their home carrying groceries for their mother. The shear amount of love and affection the two brothers had for their mother made Louise feel warm inside. When they walked inside of their house and saw their mother collapsed on the floor, Louise felt her heart stop. As the image fades Louise hears a young voice call out, "Mom…Mommy, wake up…Mom…" The next scene was that of the two brothers attending their own mother's funeral, surrounded and supported by their friends. She saw the older of the two damn their father, and she saw them hatch their crazy plan to resurrect their mother.

Time flies by and Louise sees the brothers grow in leaps and bounds. She sees them study tirelessly to try and resurrect their mother using an art that was similar to a class taught to the third years in the Academy, Alchemy. The only difference in the two were that the alchemy she saw was much more complex. It was like comparing the mind of an adult to that of a child. She saw them meet their teacher for the first time, a hard woman named Izumi Curtis who was a master alchemist. She saw the brutal training the woman put them through, how she would push them relentlessly forward. She saw things that made her smile, like when the older brother finally figured out the meaning of his teachers test, when he realized what 'one is all and all is one' meant.

Then Louise saw something that chilled her to her soul. She saw the boys draw a large circle in the middle of their empty home, and fill it with different substances along with a drop of their blood. Some she recognized like iron and sulfur but others were a complete mystery to her. She saw the two of them put their hands on the edges of the circle, nod to each other, and activate it. Gold light swirled out from the circle, expanding in a vortex. The older brother turned his head to follow one of the lights and it was at that instant the dream turned into a nightmare.

The gold lights turned dark and purple as a giant eye appeared in the middle of the circle. She watched terrified as black tentacles reached out of the circle, grabbing hold of the younger brother's arm and reducing it to nothing. "Big brother!" she heard him cry out, getting his brothers attention. "Al!" the older brother screamed as his younger brother was ripped apart before his very eyes, leaving only his clothes behind. Turning her attention to the other brother Louise saw that his left leg was missing; all that was left was a bloody stump. The lights stopped and a fog appeared in the room, making what was made by the bloody and gory ritual unseen.

Holding her breath, Louise could only watch horrified as the fog shifted and a pale white arm emerged from it. What followed the arm could only be described as a monster. The fog cleared some more revealing the creature's broken and warped form. It lay on its back, its spine warped and organs pouring out of its body. The beast reached for the boy but its hand fell short. The only color visible in the darkness was the glowing purple spots where the eyes were. All the body parts were bent at an awkward angle and gory material seeped out of the monster that the boys created.

It was at that moment the boy remembered that his brother was gone. He wrapped up the stump of a leg he had and made his way over to a nearby suit of armor and with what looked like much of his remaining strength drew a rune on the inside of the armor with his own blood. After he finished the rune he made his way back to the circle, screamed out that he wanted his little brother back and he was all he had left, and clapped his bloody hands together, making a bright blue explosion of crackling light and energy.

Gasping Louise shot up from her bed, sweat dampening her nightgown. 'Was it all just a bad dream,' she asked herself, rubbing her sides to try and warm herself up from an imaginary chill. Slowly she dressed herself, putting on her uniform and brushing her hair. 'What a horrid nightmare,' she thought shuddering. Shaking herself out of her funk, Louise instead focused on her first goal for the day…finding her missing familiar. She spent over three hours looking for the damn plebian last night before finally giving up and going to sleep. After spending another hour or so looking around the grounds Louise's stomach began to make itself heard, mainly through loud and aggressive growling.

Blushing slightly Louise decided to appease her body before continuing on her hunt. So walking over to the dining hall Louise was surprised to see Kirche's little friend Tabitha sitting at one of the tables, trademark blue and black crooked staff resting in one hand while the other held her usual book that had her face buried in it. The second year stood at a little over five and a half feet tall with rather short light blue hair. She also frequently wears reading glasses.

Louise and Tabitha had a pleasant relationship with one another, neither went out of their way to help the other but there wasn't any hostility between them. If anything they were somewhat kindred spirits; with Tabitha being made fun of for reading so much and Louise being mocked for her abysmal spell casting, although Louise had it much, much worse. So after getting her food, Louise walked over to the still reading girl.

"Hello Tabitha, may I sit here?' she asked politely, not wanting to loose one of the few people who didn't mock her as a friend.

"Sit," came her usual one syllable answer.

Now most people would consider that rude but people like Louise and Kirche paid it no mind, knowing that it was just the way the introverted girl was.

Smiling Louise sat down to eat her breakfast when the smile sips off her face yet again. Sensing the change in her breakfast companion's mood, Tabitha shut her book with a snap and turned to look at the downtrodden pinket.

"Tell," she said simply, giving Louise her undivided attention.

Louise began to tell the young bluenette exactly what was bothering here. Tabitha sat next to the near hysterical girl as she laid all her doubts, fears, and problems out on the table. She could see that all that was keeping the Valliere from breaking down in tears were her noble pride. Louise was a wreck and she knew it. She was afraid of her family's reaction to summoning a HUMAN familiar; she didn't want to be forced into being a trophy wife and be married off for the good of the family.

"And now I can't even find the blasted thing," she finished her rant, tears appearing in the corner of her pink eyes. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Tabitha getting up, staff in hand and her book tucked against her side.

"Find," she said, seeing Louise's confusion. The pink haired girls face lit up with happiness and she hurried to finish eating so they could go.

After consuming her meal, Louise and Tabitha made their way out into the courtyard, intending to ask if any of their classmates had seen the elusive familiar. That however proved to be unnecessary for the second they entered the courtyard Tabitha spotted a blob of crimson in one of the trees. Closer inspection revealed that it was Louise's wayward familiar. Tugging on the other girl's sleeve Tabitha pointed at the blob with the end of her staff saying, "There."

Following the direction the staff was pointing in Louise felt her eyes narrow in anger. 'How did I miss that? It's not like his-no its cloak is green,' she thought reminding herself that a familiar isn't a he it is a thing. Turning to face the young woman who helped her, Louise gave her a pleasant smile.

"Thank you Tabitha."

"Bye…"

Louise waved the introverted girl off before turning to face her still sleeping familiar, a dark sinister smile dancing across her face. 'Lets put one of my explosions to good use for once,' she thought as she pulled out her wand and raised it, the wooden instrument crackling with energy. Pointing her fully charged wand at the prone blond, Louise let out a savage war cry as she released the pent up willpower.

**BOOM!**

Ed was dreaming peacefully for once, enjoying his trip to slumber land for the first time in a long time. Suddenly his experience honed danger alarm exploded, along with the branch he was sleeping in.

"Ooff," he grunted as he hit the ground before jumping up into a defensive stance, not knowing if it was an attack or not. If it was an attack then he had some serious ass to kick and if it wasn't it was probably Mustang telling him not to sleep on the job. He honestly didn't know which one was worse. When no other attacks came through the smoke Ed came to the conclusion that he wasn't under attack and it was just Roy who blew him up.

"Dammit Mustang do you have to send a fireball my way every time I fall asleep? It's not a pleasant way to…" Ed trailed off as the smoke cleared, revealing a young pink haired girl who was pointing a little stick at him and not Mustang getting ready to snap again. Confusion filled his mind before said organ finally caught up with the rest of him. 'Oh yeah I got out of that shit hole. I still need to figure out how that happened,' shaking his head clear of his musings, Ed focused instead on the girl in front of him.

"Hey you're the girl who summoned me, Louise I think, right?"

Said girl only nodded dumbly, shocked that her familiar not only knew someone who sounded like they could do magic, but sent fireballs at him and her familiar said it like its no big deal. Clearing her head of those thoughts Louise focused instead on scolding her familiar about how it (A/N ugh this is so weird to write) talked to the Headmaster and herself. It then proceeded to turn into a rant that included the following phrase, "insinuate that I am into S&M…" and, "You dirty, dirty dog!"

Unfortunately for Louise, she wasn't dealing with some regular bum who would take everything she said lying down. No, she's dealing with Edward Elric, The Fullmetal Alchemist, whose entire definition of the word 'don't' meant 'do it when no one else is looking.'

So taking that into account, one wouldn't be surprised that Ed simply tuned her out, ignoring Louise's entire monologue with a skill that could only be developed by ignoring his commanding officers orders for years. Sighing, the golden haired young man decided to patiently wait till she was finished ranting, counting the number of times he heard words like 'no,' or 'dog,' and 'disgrace.'

Breathing heavily, Louise finished her tirade glaring at her familiar before asking that oh so popular question.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" Louise stood there, tapping her foot angrily, waiting for his answer.

"Hmm… Well you said the word no seventeen times, the phrase 'dirty dog' at least six times, and 'disgrace' fifteen times. Wow you have a lot of issues," came Ed's own eloquent response.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" She screamed at him.

Ed thought for a second. "You know what, I have absolutely no idea. You should probably take that up with my therapist." He said, idly scratching his temple with a gloved hand as he looked off to the side.

Turning back to face his summoner Ed found that she was absolutely livid. Knowing how dangerous an angry woman was the alchemist tried to calm her down.

"Now wait a minute Louise, just calm down. I'm sure you have some questions for me and I will be happy to answer most of them, right after I have breakfast." Turning to catch a passing maid's attention he asked the maid for directions to the mess hall. After receiving directions from the blushing maid Ed made his way to his breakfast, looking at Louise over his shoulder. "You coming?" he asked the still fuming girl and then continued on walking to his meal.

Bye that time Louise began to wonder at that point who she would have to pay off in order for no one to find her familiars body. It may take some money but she was pretty sure she could make it happen. Shaking her head clear of murder plots and other such things, Louise's curiosity got the better of her and so she made the decision to follow her familiar to the dining hall.

Walking into the beautifully crafted dining hall, Ed whistled in appreciation. "Not bad," he said to Louise, who had just caught up to him, "What did they use to make this? I don't see that many supports and those that are here are too artistic to be really useful."

Louise huffed, "Please, this chamber was made with the best earth magic available. There is no need for supports, magic keeps the roof up."

"I already figured that out thank you very much. I'm asking how they did it. Like how did they focus their energy into the stone to harden it or did they change the stone into an entirely different substance?"

"Why do you care? Its there it's made, what's the point in finding out the how?" She asked crossly, folding her arm across her chest in irritation.

"Snappy much," he remarked, glancing sideways at the fuming pinket. Ignoring her angry retort, Ed began to help himself to some of the food on one of the many serving tables when he heard the sound of something flying through the air. Raising his hand to stop the incoming blow, Ed surprised Louise when he caught her hand in his own. He let go of her hand after a second and looked at her. Wagging his finger in a 'no, no' fashion, Ed laughed for a second at the look on her face before asking her, "Is there a reason for you trying to beat me senseless?"

Once again giving him a death glare, Louise scolded him. "You can't eat that."

He deadpanned. "And why the hell can't I?"

"Because the food here is for Nobles and students, familiars eat what their masters give them." She retorted.

Ed snorted as he picked up a piece of bread, biting into it as he spoke, "Listen here little girl. I said before that I don't give a damn about nobility and that shit, so I'm just going to stand here and eat this very good bread. I may also try some of these delicious looking muffins, thank you very much." And so, grabbing his loot in his hands, Ed made his way to one of the empty tables in the hall and sat down, earning himself many stares and, to the ire of the males, blushes from the females in the hall. Most of the second years recognized him from the summoning rite but they all wondered why a commoner was eating among them. 'God these people are such blowhards,' Ed thought to himself as he continued to eat his breakfast, before he found himself face to face with his old nemesis. 'Milk,' he all but growled in his mind, 'We meet again.' Looking up from his self imposed glaring match with the liquid substance, Ed saw that Louise was the one who put the drink in front of him.

"Thanks but no thanks," he told her.

"I'm your master and I say drink it," she commanded, raising her wand in the air to let him know that she meant business.

Watching the piece of explosive causing wood warily Ed grabbed the milk and raised it to his lips. But before the liquid even made contact with his lips he flung the milk into the air and took off running, screaming at the top of his lungs that she'll never take him alive.

Blinking twice Louise exploded in anger. "GET YOU'RE ASS BACK HERE YOU STUPID DOG!" She screamed after him, sending explosion after explosion in his wake.

"MAKE ME YOU STUPID BITCH!"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

In his office Osmond sighed heavily, knowing that the Louise Explosion fund will most likely be depleted by the end of the day.

After finally calming down, both Louise and her familiar walked back to the courtyard outside of the Dining Hall, neither person talking as not to disturb the uneasy peace between the two. When Ed saw students and their familiars loitering about in the courtyard he asked Louise what was going.

"Oh? Second years have no classes today, so that they can form bonds and connect with their familiars."

"Then why the hell were you sending explosions after me this morning?" he asked her, not seeing how trying to blow up someone is a good way to connect with them.

"Because you annoyed me."

Any further conversation between the two was interrupted when a voice that Louise knew all too well came from behind them.

"Hello," the very happy greeting came from a tall, dark skinned red head that stood alongside a rather large red lizard whose tail was apparently on fire.

"Zerbst! What are you doing here," Louise asked her rival, seeing how her familiar was more fascinated with Kirche's familiar than her at the moment.

"Nothing Valliere, just enjoying the fresh air along with my familiar Flame," she answered patting the lizard's bony head while said lizard wagged its tail. Kirche then turned her attention to the golden haired alchemist. "So how are you feeling Edward?" she asked him, her voice soft and seductive.

"Hmm. Oh I'm sorry were you saying something?" came his response as he shook himself from his reverie, "It's just the last time I saw a member of the reptile family that big it was trying to kill me and my brother." He said but his mouth seemed to stop working as soon as his eyes made contact with Kirche's body. His eyes were immediately thrown upwards as he tried desperately not to think perverted thoughts. 'You are not General(A/N I think) Mustang, you are not that bastard, you are not General Mustan… oh hot damn look at that bod…no you are not General Mustang…' repeated throughout his mind as he wrestled with his hormones and urges.

Kirche giggled at his attempt to be a gentleman, knowingly causing her more than generous bust to bounce up and down. She knew she was sexy; what with her long, well cared for red-orange hair, smooth dark tan skin, full figure and large bust size it was no wonder why Ed was close to loosing control after not seeing a woman for god knows how long, even if she didn't know that.

Ed finally got control over his hormones, and looked down locking his amber gold eyes with her one visible chocolate colored eye. Smirking slightly Ed gave her a small bow, inclining his head slightly. "Thank you for caring for me ma'am but I assure you I've had worse." And that was apparently all the two of them needed in order to launch into a disturbingly familiar series of arguments. As the two argued further Ed realized why it was so familiar to him. 'Its like me and the bastard all over again,' he thought to himself and to his mounting horror he discovered that it was worse, 'only in female form.'

The golden haired alchemist quietly tiptoed away from the two arguing girls, slowly but surely getting out of the range of their argument. Once out of their range he began to breath normally again, feeling safe once more. 'Hmm I wonder what there is to do around here,' he thought to himself as he looked around. He noticed the black haired girl he saw last night with the blond fop walking his way.

"Ah, excuse me. I was wondering if you could help me find someone," she asked Ed, playing with the end of her cloak. Never one to turn down a nice person in need of some help, Ed nodded and after a quick survey around the courtyard located his target sitting at a table with what looked like a large mole at his side. Also next to him was a blond second year girl and her toad familiar.

"The guy you were with last night is that way ma'am," he said, pointing in said boy's direction.

The girl blushed and made her way over to the blond boy, a wrapped package held in her hands. She didn't realize that the boy of her dreams was with another woman and Ed didn't have the heart to tell her that. Honestly curious why the boy would cheat on such a sweet girl, Ed slowly made his way over to the group, noting the rapidly growing argument taking place by the time he arrived.

"You bastard how could you do this to me, Guiche? You said you were bonding with Verdandi last night, and here I find out you were messing around with a first year!" the blond girl was screaming at Guiche, who by this point was a stuttering mess as he tried to deny it. The other girl, Katie, on the other hand was a sobbing mess as she felt her heart had just been ripped in two.

"Montmorency it isn't what you thin-" he stuttered out but not before both girls screamed, "LIAR!" and Montmorency smacked him across the face hard enough to leave a red handprint while Katie ran off crying. The surrounding students began to laugh at the scene.

Ed was having trouble not breaking down and laughing with them at that moment. The look on Guiche's face was absolutely priceless.

Guiche heard Ed's failed attempt at stiff ling his laughter because his head swung over in Ed's direction, eyes narrowed in anger. "You!" he spat, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at Ed, "You are the one who made these girls cry!" Ed looked around him, wondering if maybe Guiche was talking to someone else. When he saw no one else around him he pointed at himself as to ask 'me?'

"Yes you! It's you're fault those beautiful girls were crying! Have you no shame?" He continued to proclaim, treating it as if it were a Shakespearian play.

Ed gave him his best 'are you retarded look,' which went unnoticed as the frill-wearing boy as he went on talking.

"And now I must fight for their honor. I hereby challenge you," he stated pompously, thrusting his wand, which had the appearance of a red rose, towards the blond alchemist.

Ed stared at him, "Are you serious? You really want to fight me?" Guiche nodded at him and it took all of Ed's self control not to burst out laughing. That self control was tested further when Guiche spoke again.

"Yes! You have insulted my honor as a noble! You are uncivilized common trash that needs to be shown his proper place in life. And I will take it upon myself to teach you that important lesson.

'Not exactly the worst thing I've been called,' Ed sighed, "Alright when, where, and how hard?"

"How hard?" the blond fop repeated, wondering what he meant by that.

"Yeah. How hard do you want your ass kicked?"

"Surely you jest. I am a noble while you are a plebian. It is an impossible notion that one such as I would be defeated by you," he sneered.

"Ha ha, sure kid. Sure. Just tell me where this duel is going to take place," Ed asked him, shaking his head sadly.

The pale blond haired boy snorted. "Meet me at Vestry Field, common trash, in ten minutes. I'll give you that much time to consider surrendering," he declared pointing in direction of said place, and then strutted away, his mole-like familiar waddling after him. The surrounding students began to chatter as they walked over to the field, some of them chatting about their day while others were putting bets on how long Ed was going to last against Guiche. However all of them were excited about the upcoming fight, even though most of them thought that it wouldn't be much of a fight at all.

Ed was about to join them when he felt a surprisingly strong hand grab a hold of his cloak. Looking down to face the perpetrator, something he was still getting used to, Ed was surprised to see his 'master' holding him back. "Umm, what are you doing?"

"Saving your butt," she spoke with a calm voice that bellied her anger at the moment.

"No need, now I'm just going to go introduce my fist with Guiche's face. Kay? See yea," he spoke walking towards the duel grounds.

Louise tried again to stop him, "Don't you understand! You're a commoner and he's a mage. Only mages can beat other mages."

The golden haired alchemist stopped, turned around and gave her a grin. "Now who said I wasn't a mage." He tugged his coat free and continued walking after the crowd.

Kirche was having a good day. She was able to get a good breakfast, avoid most of her fanboys, and spend some time messing with her second favorite midget. Messing with Louise was always fun for Kirche, mostly because Louise makes the funniest faces when she's mad and also because it was a way of bonding between the two girls. Or at least that's what it was to Kirche.

Her smile faded into a frown of confusion when she saw a group of students walking towards Vestry Fields talking about some sort of duel. Curious she made her way towards the group.

"Hey what's going on?" she asked one of the girls in the group.

"Didn't you hear?" seeing her look of confusion the girl continued, "Guiche challenged Louise's familiar to a duel after he was caught cheating, again." She giggled.

Although she didn't show it, Kirche was on the verge of hyperventilating when she heard that. 'Oh no he's going to be crushed,' she thought to herself as she hurried over to the dueling ground to try and get Ed to quit. However when she got there he was nowhere to be found. She stood there, so nervous that she didn't notice she had company until said company nudged her with her staff.

"Huh, oh hi Tabitha," she greeted lamely.

"Wrong?" the bluenette asked her friend, obviously worried about her friend.

"Oh I'm just worried about Louise's familiar. I mean he's going against a noble and Guiche's father was a famous general so it highly likely that he taught him some very dangerous spells. The girls were standing on the edge of a large circle of students and in the center of the circle was a now posing Guiche. 'Pig,' she thought to herself, 'I hope Edward kicks your ass!' However, just thinking about it made Kirche feel more and more nervous about the upcoming duel. Then she heard his voice ring out amongst the crowd.

"Alright you lazy bastards. Out of my way!"

Sweatdropping at his language, Kirche turned to see a head of golden hair pushing his way though the circle of students.

Seeing his opponent arrive, Guiche began taunting. "Hmm well what do you know? You must be dumber than you look, not surrendering when you had the chance."

"Stow it playboy," Ed quipped, throwing Guiche off his stride, "So how are we doing this? Yield? First blood? Death?"

"What ever gave you that last idea?" Guiche asked aghast, and he wasn't the only one. Several faces in the crowd went pale at the mention of someone possibly dying. Clearing his throat Guiche tried to regain his nerve. "We will fight till one of us yields. Now prepare yourself, plebian," he declared swiping his rose shaped rose to the side.

"Stop it Guiche! Duels are prohibited!" Louise called out from the side.

"Duels between **nobles** are prohibited," Guiche corrected, stressing the word nobles, "and you're familiar, while handsome, is no noble."

Ed shivered, "Did you just call me handsome? Are you gay?"

Guiche gave him a shocked look. "No what ever gave you that idea?" he asked nearly choking on his own spit in shock while the surrounding students erupted into an uproar of laughter.

"Lets see. You have a rose as a wand; your shirt has so many frills on it that I almost mistook you for an actor, and you just called me handsome, why wouldn't I get that idea?" The laughter of the students got even louder.

"That's it. You will pay for your insults!" Guiche roared over the crowd, waving his wand in a rather flamboyant manner. A single petal drifted from the plant shaped object and emitted a bright white light as a humanoid figure emerged from the bowels of the earth. It was average height and looked like a full suit of bronze armor, like the one Alphonse was trapped in, only fitted for a female with large pauldrons and a battle skirt. In its hands was a seven foot long spear that looked frighteningly similar to Ed's own spear.

Guiche gave Ed a confident grin, already assured of his victory. "My name is Guiche De Gramont, my runic name is Guiche the Bronze and my Valkyrie will be your opponent! Valkyrie, attack!" He proclaimed as the golem shot forward, fist extended to nock its opponent out. However as it got closer and closer a smirk could be scene on Ed's face. Seconds before impact, Ed leaned back a full ninety degrees, showing a remarkable amount of flexibility, letting the fist sail over him. As he returned to his full height, Ed's smirk grew. 'This is gonna be a piece of cake,' he thought to himself. Jumping backwards Ed flipped over the next fist, landing fifteen feet from where he was standing. Stepping to the right, he dodged another incoming blow, further infuriating Guiche.

"Stand still and take your beating plebian!" the noble boy cried out, not liking where this was going.

Ed took a moment to stick his tongue out at him. "Don't think so jackass," he retorted, dodging another blow meant for his face.

To those watching from the outside it looked like a dance, one that Ed knew how to do effortlessly and by heart. The students' jaws dropped as they realized that the golden haired man was dodging all these blows, with his eyes closed! 'Amazing,' both Kirche and Siesta thought to themselves as they felt their cheeks warm up. "How…" Louise breathed out in wonder, knowing that her familiar had to be an absurdly talented fighter in order to be able to do such thing.

'That's it,' Guiche thought furiously, 'I can't stand him any more.' "Valkyrie… authorized lethal force!" He commanded his golem, causing all watching to gasp.

This time when the golem came at Ed it advanced with its spear at the ready. Ed ducked his head, easily avoiding the incoming spearhead, then dove to the side to escape the staff being slammed against his head. Another swipe was dodged with a handspring backwards and the follow up stab was ducked under. The golem swung its spear again, trying to separate Ed's head from his shoulder with the weapons two foot long blade when Ed did something that shocked everyone watching… he darted inside of the golems guard and caught it.

"Hiiyyaaaa," he screamed as he ripped the spear from the golem's hands.

Spinning the pole-arm around Ed carved deep gashes in the golem's chest, rendering it useless. Unnoticed by anyone in the clearing a pair of amber brown eyes peering out of the crowd narrowed in suspicion. Ed felt his mind clear up, all there was left was him and his opponent. Narrowing his eyes, Ed snarled and charged forward, spear held at the ready.

Panicking Guiche swiped his wand twice and four more petals fell before transforming into Valkyries. The golems charged at their incoming target, this time armed with both spears and shields. The golems lasted a total of three seconds to the roaring maelstrom that was Ed, falling to numerable slashes, stabs, and crushing blows. 'He beat them. I have no choice but to use **it**,' Guiche thought to himself. The blond nobleman began backing up at that point, knowing that he only had one shot for this to work.

_Spike Shot!_ Guiche screamed as he thrusting his rose shaped wand in the direction of his attacker. Immediately a group of rock spikes shot out of the ground, speeding towards Ed. Now Ed could have dodged each and every one of them easily but he knew that most of the students behind him wouldn't be so lucky. And so Ed made hiss decision.

Thrusting his spear into the ground, Ed clapped his hands together before slamming them on the ground. Equations ran through his mind as he began the transmutation.

Crackling blue lightning covered the ground in front of him and a wall of earth ten feet tall and twenty feet long emerged from the covered ground, stopping the rock spikes in their tracks. Another clap and the earthen wall sank back into the ground, revealing a thoroughly pissed off Ed.

The crowd was shocked beyond words at that point. Up until then they had all thought that Ed was just a commoner, a highly skilled commoner, but a commoner nevertheless. And here he was now doing what looked like earth magic WITHOUT a wand. However none were as confused as Louise de Valliere. 'How is this possible? Did I summon a noble?' the thought chilled her to her bone as she remembered how she treated him. Kirche on the other hand was salivating at that point. 'Strong…check. Sense of humor…check. Handsome…double check. Mmm, looks like I've got a new target.' Looking out into the crowd Kirche saw many of the female students and a few of the younger maids staring at the golden blond alchemist with similar expressions. 'I have a bit of competition too.'

Ed, using the shocked silence to his advantage, clapped again and after slamming his hands to the ground sent blue electricity arching from his hands over to surround the blond noble. Then rock spikes erupted from the earth, stopping a hairs breadth from Guiche's throat. Said noble looked up and locked his quivering blue eyes with Ed's burning gold ones.

"I give up. Just please don't hurt me."

Nodding tightly, Ed clapped again and reset the field to what it was before the battle. Then, not saying a word to anyone, he picked up the spear he took during the match and walked away, ignoring the whispering going on around him as the crowd parted to make way.

"…he's a noble…"

"Yeah…without a wand…"

"…elvish blood…"

Pushing their whispers out of his mind Ed continued walking towards the dining hall, spear held on top of his shoulder as he tried to control his anger. 'Stupid children,' he thought ruefully, shaking his head.

* * *

**Me: DAAAMMMNNNN Guiche got his ass WHOOPED! I think it went pretty well. Anyway tell me which group of Homulicus you want me to use the 2003 anime ones or the manga/botherhood versions. Cause i can work with both of them. Adios mi amgos.**

**Disregard that last statement. I've decided on the Manga/Brotherhood homulicus.**

**P.S. ! *clears throat* Review please. oh and tell me how i did on the fight scene please.**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys its me! I'm finally back. Sorry for the wait but I had to rewrite this chapter three times in order to get it right. I want to thank everyone who reviewed and as to which of the Homuluci i will be bringing back, I'm thinking all of them but pride considering he never really died (Never understood that anyway) and having two of them defect to Ed's side. And i bet yall have guessed one of them, Greed, but i'll bet you'll never guess the second one. Anyway I hope yall enjoy this chapter and remember review.**

**KitsuneSwordsman95 doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist or Familiar of Zero. If I did do you think I'd be a student. No I'd be clubbing right now thank you. Onward we go!**

* * *

'Nice place,' Ed thought to himself as he looked around the room he was currently sitting in. The walls were a light pink color, a color that surprisingly didn't burn the crap out of his retinas due to the soft light coming from the Victorian style lights on the walls. Where the wall met the hardwood floor there was an extremely decorative wooden molding that seemed to be made of oak, very old oak, which is very expensive to process and craft. Directly across from him there was a large mahogany dresser and next to that was an equally well made vanity mirror that looked like it was made of a combination of gold, silver, and iron. 'Not something you see every day,' he noted before turning to survey the rest of the room. To his right was a lavender king sized, four-poster bed, complete with draperies that hung from the top of the beds canopy along with what looked like the entryway to a large walk-in closet. On his left side was the door to leave the room and a rather large bookshelf absolutely filled with a great many tomes, next to which was a wooden stool. 'Note to self; take a look through those later,' the blond haired alchemist reminded himself, knowing that even in this world, knowledge is power. He took a bite from one of the biscuits that lay on the round mahogany desk turned lunch table he sat at, soaking all of this in.

His mind then turned to the duel he just took part in. 'It was pathetic,' he concluded, running over the events that laid stored in his near perfect memory. 'On both of our parts,' he corrected himself. His opponent was weak… almost outrageously so. Edward didn't even need five percent of his strength to beat the pompous fool into the dirt. If that was the strength of one of the elites of this land, then this country was weaker than he thought. It's a miracle that it hasn't been conquered yet. On the other hand, his own performance was lacking as well. His speed and strength had weakened considerably and his overall battle perception had been screwy the entire fight. During the war against the homuluci an opponent like Guiche would have been down on the floor either incapacitated or, nowadays, dead. During his time in the void Ed had time to think about his promise to never kill. Now, thinking back on it, it seems like a stupid promise to make during a war. In war anyone can die and if you want to ensure the survival of not only yourself but your friends and allies you can't afford to pull your punches. So he decided to follow a new creed, which said that he would only kill if the situation called for it. Meaning that if someone dared to try and kill his allies or himself then he would show them what it meant to be a human weapon of mass destruction. Pulling himself out of his musing, Ed noticed that his host had been staring at him intently with unbridled curiosity and a little bit of fear. Clearing his throat to get her attention, the alchemist almost broke into laughter when she practically jumped out of her skin. Shaking the hidden chuckles away Ed narrowed his eyes at the young pinkette

"What are you looking at?" He snapped at her, annoyance in his gold hued eyes. Trying, being the key word.

Startled, Louise tried to regain her composure. "E-Excuse me Mister Elric, but could you answer a question for me?" she asked, cursing herself for stuttering.

The question prompted Ed to raise a golden eyebrow at her politeness. 'She was never this nice to me before, so what's causing this change now?' he thought to himself, pondering over the events of today. Then it hit him. 'The fight… I bet she's wondering about how I was able to do all of those things in the courtyard.'

"You want to know how I was able to do the things I did, aren't you?" he voiced his thoughts, startling Louise again with how perceptive he was.

Louise nodded, "Yes. You yourself said that you weren't of noble blood, yet during the duel you used earth magic! And without a wand at that! How is that even possible? I mean every mage needs a wand to focus their willpower in order to use spells. The only type of magic that is wand-less is the Firstborn Magic used by elves, and while your eyes are unique your ears aren't pointed enough to indicate whether or not you are part elf. And then the way you used that spear! That was the single most graceful use of a spear I have ever seen before in my entire life! It was like you had been using one since you were born. What are you?" she finished in a whisper, almost scared of the answer she will receive.

A silence descended upon the occupants of the room as Ed tried to figure out what to do. 'On one hand I will be giving out very sensitive information that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could spell disaster. On the other I could be sending my apparent partner out without enough information to survive the real world if the shit hits the fan like it usually does.' Deciding not to endanger an innocent person's life if he could help it, Ed chose the second option. If worst came to worse he'll just spend another couple years or so hunting down rouge alchemists. Setting down his food, Ed leaned forward across the table and looked Louise dead in the eye.

"What I'm about to tell you can, and probably will change the course of history in this land. Until it reveals itself you cannot speak a word of this to ANYONE. If you do a great deal of people will most likely get hurt or die in the after effects. If you do tell anyone, without a damn good reason, I will kill you along with whoever you told and whoever they told and so on. Do I make myself clear?" He spoke slowly and clearly, the seriousness of the matter showing in his amber golden eyes.

Shuddering slightly at the intense gaze, Louise shakily nodded; her curiosity set a blaze by Ed's promise. 'What could possibly be so important that he would threaten to kill people he has never met before just to keep it a secret. I hope it's nothing that would go against the crown,' she thought to herself, afraid of that possibility. Assuring herself that a royal commanding her to do something would be considered a damn good reason, Louise mentally prepared herself for what could possibly be a life changing event.

Seeing her nod, a feral grin appeared on Ed's face. "Tell me, Louise, what do you know about the exact art of Alchemy?"

* * *

The Tristain Academy of Magical Arts is an old school, nearly seven hundred years of age. The campus was in the shape of a pentagon with large walls on each side. On each point of the pentagon there was a tower, four of them representing the four elements, earth, water, fire, and wind, and the last one standing empty as there were no users of the Void element after the Founder, Brimir. Brimir and his familiar Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God, became a legend when he aided humanity when their people were banished from the holy land by the elves. It was Brimir who established the type of magic still used today and the royal houses of Tristain, Gallia, and Albion could trace their lineage back to him. The towers representing the four elements were shaped like cylinders and roughly nine stories tall with a different color roof for the element they stood for; red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, and brown for earth. The towers were connected by a set of hallways, which were two stories themselves. Arches opened the hallways to the courtyards that dominated the landscape, each filled to the brim with beautiful gardens and groves. There were a few fields of grass that dotted the landscape, mostly around the main tower. The main tower itself stood over fifteen stories tall with a large base that tapered off into a point. At the bottom of the tower and along the second story of the hallways connecting the five other towers with the main one, were the students quarters along with the dining hall, main library, and teachers quarters. At the top of the tower was the headmaster's office and quarters. Said office was currently occupied by a pair of men who looked intensely at a glowing globe that sat on the headmaster's desk, both of them shocked beyond words. The younger of the two could only say three words, "Well that's unexpected."

The older of the two, an old man with a long white beard looked at him like he was crazy. "We just saw one of our more promising students, and the son of a general at that, not only lose in a duel against a commoner. And then we find out said commoner can use magic! I think unexpected is the understatement of the year, Professor Colbert."

Colbert laughed. "Headmaster, Guiche wasn't beaten; he was completely and utterly destroyed. And I'm sure you saw the same thing I did right Headmaster?"

Osmond nodded at that. "True. Young Edward didn't even use his full strength. It's somewhat scary how easily he dismantled his opponent," he shuddered at the thought of the young alchemist going all out. Then his mind turned to the events that took place at the end of the duel. 'That magic,' he thought to himself, 'I've seen that type of magic before, but where?'

Seeing the look on Osmond's face Colbert couldn't help but ask, "Gold piece for your thoughts Headmaster?"

Startled out of his thoughts, the Headmaster almost jumped out of his seat. "Don't do that to me Colbert, I almost had a heart attack," he said, placing a hand over his rapidly beating heart. Hearing a small laugh Osmond glared at his colleague who held up his hands in a placating manner. After calming down so as to keep himself from heart failure, Osmond told Colbert his thoughts.

"That's troublesome," he thought out loud as he rubbed his chin in thought, "Plus I still haven't figured out what those runes mean."

That got Osmond's attention. "What exactly do you mean by runes?" he asked knowing that the subject of runes is no laughing matter.

"I'm talking about the runes on Edward's left hand. I've been looking for their meaning since I saw then. It's driving me insane."

"Why is that the case Colbert?" the Headmaster asked curiously.

Colbert sighed. "Because I swear that I have seen them somewhere, I just can't remember where." Osmond started to laugh. "What's so funny Headmaster?" Colbert asked.

"I'm sorry but that's the exact same way I feel about his magic. Its like a memory that's just out of reach," the old man chuckled before sighing, "By the Founder that makes me feel old."

"The Founder… the Founder!" Colbert suddenly exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

"Yes Colbert, I know who the Founder is," the Headmaster spoke softly, afraid that his colleague had finally lost it.

"No you old fool, that is where I remember seeing the runes. They were the runes of Gandalfr, the Left hand of God!" the fire mage practically screamed, waving his hands for emphasis.

The room grew quiet at this revelation. Both of the mages knew the gravity of the idea of Louise 'the Zero' de la Vallière's familiar being Gandalfr.

Osmond's face grew serious. "I think we both understand that this information needs to remain secret until we can verify whether or not this is true. Agreed." His tone left no room for arguments.

Straightening up at the tone, Colbert stood straight at attention, "Yes Headmaster, sir. By your leave?"

Osmond nodded, waving his best professor off with a nod and a smile. He sat in his desk, stroking his long white beard in thought as he turned to look out the window, his eyes roaming across his beloved school.

* * *

Louise lay down on top of her plush, king sized bed, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts. When she heard her familiar's, no Ed's, story the first thing she thought was this couldn't be real. Then when he demonstrated the art, no science, of his world's alchemy Louise didn't know what to think. Her familiar, the one she had written off as a simple commoner was an extremely skilled, and apparently, respected member of his country's military. Whats more, he is a hero to his people. And she even had proof that he was telling the truth. Turning to look at the evidence that sat on the floor on the other side of the room. Standing not seven feet from her bed was a large, extremely accurate, wooden statue depicting the likeness of her. It was almost like looking in the mirror. After their talk, the young alchemist excused himself to go get something to eat and explore the grounds. Louise didn't even notice he left until the door shut on his way out.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Louise tried to fall asleep only to find herself unable to even calm her mind. The mere thought about the idea that her familiar was more useful and valuable than her herself sent her spiraling into depression. Trying to keep the tears from falling out of her eye, Louise turned over into her pillow, 'I really am nothing but a zero.'

* * *

Walking down towards the kitchen, Ed found himself lost in thought yet again. This time his thoughts revolved around his past. Telling he 'master' Louise his story forced memories that he'd rather stay buried up to the surface of his mind. He didn't tell her everything, no innocent mind deserved to be exposed to the horrors of war, especially a war like the one he had fought. But what he did tell her was enough to remind him about all those dark horrible things that happened during that time. However on the other hand it also reminded him about all the good times he spent with his friends and family. The days playing with Al, all the time he spent training with Izumi, who was like a second mother to him and his brother, and even the times he had his little arguments with Roy. The bastard colonel may have gotten on his nerves constantly but he looked out for him in his own, weird way. That time was one of extremes; on one end of the spectrum Ed had experienced great happiness and on the other end he had faced horrors that were present in the nightmares of only the most twisted and deranged minds. He wondered what happened to everyone after he 'left.' Did Riza finally reel in Roy? Did Colonel Mustang ever become Furher? Did Ling ever become emperor of Xing? Did Lan Fan every finally get around to telling Ling how she felt about him? Ed personally thought that it was pretty obvious how she felt about him. Did Al ever get to eat all the things on his list? That question made Ed smile, knowing that his little brother probably gorged himself the second he got out of hospital, and maybe even before then if he convinced his little girlfriend May Chang to bring him some food. His thoughts continued down this strain as he made his way down the hallway.

So lost he was in his thoughts that Ed didn't realize he had a stalker following him. As he rounded the corner he felt something grab the back of his cloak. Turning suddenly and smoothly sliding into a fighting stance at the exact same time Ed was surprised to see a rather large reddish orange lizard tugging at the end of his cloak. Recognizing it as the familiar of the Kirche girl he was introduced to today Ed yanked his cloak out of its beak and crouched down in front of it.

"Can I help you little salamander?" He asked it dryly, not really expecting an answer from the reptile. That's why he was surprised when the salamander nodded its head in an affirmative. Tugging on the sleeve of his cloak the reptile gestured for Ed to follow him down the hallway. Not really having anything to do and not being very hungry in the first place, Ed decided to follow the reptile. 'Might as well see where this goes,' he thought to himself as he was dragged through the hallways.

The strange pair had been walking for maybe fifteen minutes when the reptile, 'Flame,' he remembered it's name, stopped in front of a door and began pawing at it. Flame then gave Ed a look that pretty much commanded that he knock on the door. Rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath about pushy lizards, Ed stepped in front of the door, which was identical to all the other doors in the hallway except for a large ornate flame carved in the center of the door. Sighing lightly Ed raised his left hand to knock on the wood, 'Let's get this over with.'

Knock, knock, knock...

"One moment please," he heard a young female voice call from the other side of the door, causing Ed to raise a golden eyebrow in confusion. Looking from the door to Flame lying down next to the wall and putting the female voice in the equation, Ed quickly pieced together the pieces of the puzzle. Just as he was about to take a step back away from the door when it flew open and a red headed figure spilled out of the doorway. Reacting quickly Ed caught the falling girl but was pulled down as well. In order to lessen the impact, and because he really didn't want to hurt a girl who didn't do anything to him, Ed spun in midair so that he would land on his back with the girl on top of him. He grunted in slight pain when he landed and was crushed by the falling girl. Opening his eyes he found his golden orbs looking back into the brown eyes, or eye, of one Kirche von Zerbst. He also was noticeably aware of the two large objects pushed into his chest. 'Oh Truth, this isn't going to end well,' Ed thought to himself as he mentally prepared for the beating to come.

Groaning Kirche lifted her head off the hard, yet strangely soft, surface she landed on. 'Dammit, I shouldn't of left my shoes at the door,' she thought to herself as she shook the cobwebs out of her head. Earlier she had been enjoying a book in bed, wearing nothing but her night gown, when she had heard a knock at her door. Outwardly she called out to tell her visitor she would be with them in a moment but inwardly it was an entirely different story. Silently cursing the buxom redhead grabbed her robe and slipped it on before making her way over the door wand in hand, ready to light the person at the door on fire if it was one of the more persistent skirt chasers in the school. She flung the door open, ready to give the person a piece of her mind when her foot got caught on the doorframe and sent her tumbling. She felt someone grab her in midair and a sudden sense of vertigo before falling on top of whoever used to be at the door. Shaking her head clear of thoughts she looked up just in time for a single brown eye to meet with a pair of amber gold eyes.

Feeling a light blush covering her cheeks as she noticed their position and how it might look to a passerby. Then her blush deepened when she realized she had her hands on his chest the entire time. 'Wow he's ripped,' blushing further at her thoughts.

"Hey are you alright?" he asked her, worry evident in his eyes.

Blushing again at his thoughtfulness Kirche nodded yes. The blushing Zerbst heiress pushed herself up and helped Ed up herself. Nodding in thanks the young alchemist dusted himself off as he tried to find a way to start this conversation without it being awkward.

"So is there any particular reason why your familiar would practically kidnap me and bring me here?" he asked the still blushing redhead, who by now realized she was staring. Although Ed himself found it hard not to stare as well, due to the fact that while Kirche's bathrobe did cover her torso and lower half, it also showed off her very curvaceous figure. Something that Ed found very hard to keep his eyes off of, whether it was because she was one of the first extremely attractive girls he had seen since he came from the void or just because of how beautiful she was in general. He would admit later that Kirche was by far one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, right up there with Solaris before he found out that it was just Lust in disguise. He was thinking so hard that he almost missed Kirche's explanation.

"I'm sorry about that. I may have told Flame that I was interested in learning more about you and was going to look for you tomorrow. I think he might have taken it as a request to bring you here. Did I interrupt you doing anything?" She asked, embarrassed beyond all belief. Ed however just gave her a smirk and shook his head in a negative so Kirche breathed a sigh of relief at that. "Would you like to come in? I really would like to get to know you better," she asked him, gesturing for the alchemist to come into her room.

Ed smirked slightly at her. "Sure if you want to know more about me you're free to ask me any question. However I can't promise you that I will answer all of them." He walked through the door, passing by the buxom redhead on his way in. Said redhead quirked her eyes at his mysterious answer but after calling her familiar inside she closed the door to her room and joined her guest inside.

Walking inside Ed saw it was almost an exact duplicate of Louise's room, aside from a few differences like the mirror and the color of the bed. Other than that the only difference was the view. Where Louise's room showed a view of the landscape surrounding the school Kirche's room seemed to be positioned so that at this time the larger light blue moon's light would pour into the room, bathing it in an almost ethereal glow.

Looking over to his host Ed gave her a smirk. "Nice place. Love the view."

Sitting down on her bed, Kirche waved him to sit next to her, giggling a bit when he hesitated. "Relax I'm not going to bite you unless," she spoke her tone going from light to downright seductive, "you want me to. Do you want me to bite you Edward?"

Edward was near hyperventilating when she played that card. Never in his entire life had he found himself in a situation like this, in fact he never thought he would ever be in a situation like this. Ed may have been in the military since he was twelve, but he was still a teenager with raging hormones. The war against the homunculi hadn't helped him either. It forced him to suppress feelings that to other boys his age would be enjoyable but to Ed they were distractions. All these things plus the fact that Kirche was very beautiful in her own right made it very hard for Ed to concentrate at the moment.

Seeing his conflict Kirche stopped her teasing. "Sorry I couldn't help myself. You left yourself wide open for that," she said while the blond calmed himself down and sat on the bed. "So Edward. Tell me about yourself."

Said blond raised an eyebrow. "Alright but if I'm going to be telling you about me then you have to tell me something about you. Equivalent Exchange," he told her sighing when nodded then tilted her head in obvious confusion. "It's a standard that people like me live by. For everything gained something of equal value must be given in return. That is the Law of Equivalent Exchange," he clarified, gesturing with his hands to show the meaning of his words. Something that Kirche found pretty funny.

"What do you mean 'people like me?'" she asks him, curious as to what he meant. But the only answer she received was a shaking of a finger.

"Nuh uh uh, it's my turn now Kirche my dear," he teased, fully recovered from her earlier teasing and wanting to return in kind. His efforts didn't go unrewarded as the redhead lit up in a fantastic blush. 'I think she invented a new shade of red,' he mused to himself.

Kirche on the other hand was lit up like a lighthouse, partially because of embarrassment and partially because of Ed's teasing. She wasn't used to being the one who is teased, instead usually fitting into the role of the teaser. She found it strangely, invigorating. Clearing her mind of such thoughts Kirche responded.

"I see, well I'm sorry for that. Please ask away."

He smirked. "Oh I plan to," he said causing her to laugh. "So why do you want to get to know me anyway?" he asked, raising a golden eyebrow.

She blushed. "Well I think you are a very interesting person. A person that I'd like to get to know better," she muttered her voice just barely hearable as the redhead raised her head to see his reaction.

If anything Ed's eyebrow lifted itself higher on his face and his smirk grew bigger. "Really? And what do you think is so interesting about me?" he asked her, inwardly laughing his ass off at her reaction to his question. Eventually he gave her mercy telling her to ask her next question.

Feeling pretty embarrassed at this point, Kirche tried valiantly to wipe the blush off of her face. Succeeding at last the buxom beauty asked her second question. "Are your eyes naturally that color? Because I've never seen eyes that color before."

He answered yes and the conversation took a mind of its own at that part. They talked though the night each asking a question and either answering or commenting on the answer given. Ed learned a lot of things about Kirche that night, and likewise the other way around. For example he learned that while a vivacious beauty Kirche didn't really have that much of a social life, at least as far as boys were concerned and actually preferred to spend time with her friends and mess around with jigsaw puzzles. She told him that most of them just stared at her breasts and or ass and didn't even make an attempt to get to know the real her. Those that didn't stare at her body were usually the ones who made their entire world their academic life, something that while admirable wasn't something Kirche wanted in a boyfriend.

Kirche learned that Ed used to be a midget, barely even five feet tall, something that made her laugh and him grumble. She also learned that he had an avid hatred of milk, which confused her greatly and was afraid of failing the people he cared about. When she asked him about his family he told her that his father left them at a young age, leaving his mother alone with raising both him and his little brother. Then a couple years later his mother died and he spent the rest of his childhood raising his little brother as best he could, getting help from his neighbors when he couldn't figure it out. Ed asked her about her family in return and was rather shocked that her father tried to marry her off to a man older than her by almost three decades.

She asked him why he was so worked out about it.

"Because," he told her, looking out the window at the moons, "Everyone deserves a choice concerning their future."

Blushing lightly Kirche asked him about his skills in the duel, particularly concerning his skill with the lance and was surprised when he told her that he had been training with it for less than a decade. When she asked him how he was as good as he was he told her that he had an amazingly brutal teacher.

"Wow he must have been harsh in order to get you where you are today," she remarked but was rather put out when Ed started to laugh. "What's so funny?" she asked crossly.

Poor Ed was struggling to breath, he was laughing so hard. "I... I'm sorry... it's just that... my teacher was a woman that actually had a rather bad sickness," he said laughing between pauses. He looked up at her face and began laughing harder at the dumbfounded expression on her face.

After shaking herself out of her stupor Kirche asked him for the details, of which he gladly told. He told her how he and his brother began researching and practicing an art that was almost exclusive to their country but everything they knew was self taught. They both knew that in order to get further that they were going to need a teacher. Enter Izumi Curtis, a well known and respected master of the before mentioned art. She didn't usually take apprentices but he and his brother were extremely stubborn and wore her down, becoming the woman's first two apprentices. She however told them that in order to train the mind one must train the body as well. So every day she would take the two of them outside to 'teach' them martial arts. The lessons usually ended in a sparring session, or more literally a one sided fight in which both boys would gang up on her only to be completely destroyed.

"And do you want to know the worse part about it?" he asked his one person audience, who was listening intently. At her response of what he answered, "She did it with her nose buried inside of a little cooking book. She wasn't even looking at us while she beat our asses into the ground." Kirche laughed at his pout, obviously amused by the idea of Ed being played with like that.

She then asked him what the art he was talking about was but he only gave her a sad smile and told her, "It's something that has both brought me great joy and great sadness in my life." His eyes looked so weighed down by the world that it made Kirche wonder what Ed had been through to give him eyes like that.

Trying to change the subject Kirche asked him if he had a profession before he came here. To which he answered yes and told her that in his country he was an officer in the military. She told him that her father and brothers were in Germanian Military and how worried she was that if Germania and Tristian went to war she might be forced to fight against all the friends she made here at the Academy.

Their conversation continued throughout the night as the two just talked on and on, not noticing the time passing by. They might have talked straight through the night if it weren't for the untimely interruption caused by one of Kirche's many fan boys.

"Kirche? Kirche my love, where are you?" a voice called through the window, causing the two to halt their conversation. Walking over to the window Kirche looked down, not all that surprised at the face that greeted her. Floating outside of the window was a rather tall young man with dark brown hair and light brown eyes with a slightly lecherous grin on his face as his eyes roamed unashamedly over Kirche's figure.

"What do you want Roland?" she asked the man, not bothering to keep her disgust out of her voice as she tugged on the folds of her robes to try and hide her figure from the eyes of her fellow student.

Roland gave her a cocky smirk. "You didn't show up for our nightly meeting. I was worried so I came straight here," he spoke in a haughty tone of voice, inviting himself inside. Once inside he walked over to Kirche arms outstretched like he was asking for a hug.

He was in for a rude awakening when the buxom redhead snorted and pushed him back. "Please like I would ever have a 'meeting' with you. Personally you disgust me. You prey on innocent little freshmen who have no idea who you are or your reputation and then when you are done with them you leave them in the dirt. You are nothing but a big...perverted...pig. Now get out of my room." she spoke, sending a vicious poke in his chest with every pause. She turned around to leave but Roland wasn't having any of that.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. "Now listen here you little bi-aahhhh," he started to say but was stopped when a hand ripped his off of her arm and twisted his wrist harshly. Looking up Roland's light brown eyes came into contact with a pair of molten golden eyes that seemed to burn in the light of the moon. The eyes seemed to convey a simple message 'don't you dare lay a hand on her.'

Snarling Roland jumped back and whipped out his wand which was made of wood and shaped so that it looked like a twister. "You will pay for that you plebian!" he growled out as he raised his wand in the air.

_Wind Slash!_ He swiped his wand across his body, sending a blade of pressurized air screaming towards Ed who due to the closeness of the blast had no time to dodge. Kirche could only watch horrified as the man she had been talking to for the last three hours and had come to consider a friend and maybe more, was sent flying across the room with a gash going horizontally across the upper portion of his chest. She cursed the thickness of her room's walls for the first time, knowing that no one would hear that spell being cast and wouldn't come to help them.

"Flame!" She called out to her familiar as she made her way over to Ed to try and help him as best as she could. Meanwhile her trusty familiar Flame approached the still smirking Roland, growling lowly and glaring at the pompous fool. Said fool noticed the incoming danger just in time to receive a blast of fire to the face. Putting out the flames with his magic Roland didn't have enough time to stop the bony head of the reptilian familiar form crashing into his upper body, sending him flying out of the window and into the ground below.

Kirche reached the groaning body on her floor; using one of the only water spells she knew, a low level healing spell, to stop the bleeding. Realizing that it wasn't working with all the clothes in the way Kirche began to remove Ed's clothes, blushing the entire time. He knew what she was doing at this time and weakly tried to push her hands away but she batted them aside easily, telling him that she was trying to help him. Unlatching the button of his under coat and ripping the fabric of his undershirt Kirche felt her breath catch in her throat at the sight before her.

There were scars all along his body, some from blades or bludgeoning tools, others that looked like burns, and then there was one that looked like someone ripped a piece of rock straight out of his stomach. But the worst part of it was that he was missing an entire arm. His entire right arm was missing, and in its place was an almost exact replica made completely out of steel. Getting her bearings the buxom redhead returned to healing the cut on his chest which would join the myriad of scars that dotted Ed's body. As the cut began to close she heard a low chuckle emitting from the man below her. Looking up she saw his eyes glowing with amusement.

"You took that much better than I thought," he remarked dryly as he gave her a somewhat strained smile. "I was half expecting you to start screaming about demons and monsters before throwing me out of your room," he joked as he began to chuckle again.

She gave him a playful glare. "Please like I could turn you away after what you did for me. But I was wondering something," she began, looking at him to see if she could continue.

"Yes Kirche," he replied, feeling slightly lightheaded from the injury.

"How did you lose it?" she asked him, hoping that the information wasn't to personal. If she learned anything from her previous conversations with the man in front of her it's that he doesn't like to burden others with his problems.

Ed sighed sadly, knowing that that question was coming. "The same way I lost my left leg," he started, shocking her. She had excepted that he had lost a limb but to lose two, that must of been horrible. "I lost them trespassing into the realm of God," he finished before rising to his feet. Taking the pieces of his clothing back from Kirche, who was apologizing for tearing them he just waved her apology aside, telling her that he can make it as good as new in a snap. He took off his cloak and set it on the bed before turning to scrutinize the torn remains of his black undershirt, not noticing the blush that erupted on his host's face.

'Oh my Brimir,' she thought to herself as her eyes roamed over every sculpted muscle that covered Ed's lithe form. He wasn't big like a body builder or some of the berserker soldiers back home in Germania. His form was like that of a cat, built for both speed and power with little to no fat anywhere on the body. Her eyes then made contact yet again with Ed's prosthetic right arm. She had never seen a prosthetic like it before and wondered where he got it. But what's more she wondered what he meant by 'trespassing on the territory of God,' and how that cost him his arm and leg. Kirche was shaken out of her thoughts when Ed clapped his mismatched hands together and slapped this right mechanical arm on the ground on top of his shirt. There was a blinding blue light as electricity filled the room along with the sound of tearing fabric. Then the light died down and instead of Ed's torn shirt lying on the floor it was a completely repaired shirt that took its spot. Ignoring her squeak of surprise Ed put his clothes back on and shrugged on his cloak before turning back to his host.

"In case you were wondering," he spoke, breaking her out of her minor meltdown, "that was the art I was talking about." She nodded mutely.

Ed then gave out a huge yawn before turning to the clock on the table. Upon seeing the time Ed turned to face Kirche. "I'm sorry to be rude but I am feeling rather tired. I'll explain it better tomorrow if that's okay with you."

Kirche yawned as well. "Yeah I understand. Man I didn't know we were up so late, sorry if I stopped from doing anything today," she said the last part sheepishly rubbing the back of her head.

He shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong. In fact I'd like to thank you. Aside from the interruption from your fan boy at the end it was a rather pleasant night," he remarked as he made his way to the door followed closely by the redhead.

"Yeah he's a real pain. I just wish there was something I could do to get rid of him," she muttered to herself as she held open the door.

Ed walked out the door, telling Kirche goodnight as he entered the hallway. However before he even took three steps Kirche called him back.

"Hey Ed wait a sec."

The young alchemist stopped and turned around ready to ask her what it was that she wanted. But any and all words became stuck in his throat as he felt two soft pieces of flesh being pressed against his cheek. Raising a hand to touch the spot where he was kissed, Ed asked her why she did that. She giggled and said three words.

"For defending me." And with that she made her way back to her room giggling and blushing the entire way. Ed on the other hand made his way back to Louise's room in a daze, barely noticing his surroundings as he walked down the hallway.

Back with Kirche we find her collapsed on her bed, blushing furiously. Her familiar Flame looked at her from his bed on the other side of the room before shaking his bony head. His mistress had found a worthy mate and he was happy for her to but she was acting like a hatchling just entering into wormhood. 'Why were two-legs so weird,' he thought to himself as he fell asleep, entering dreamland to go hunt and eat his prey.

* * *

**Well thats it. I think I did this kirche encounter pretty well considering how i played with her character in the begining Remember to review and visit my profile to vote for the pairings. Oh and there are two definates in the paring so far, Siestia and Henrieta are in! Congrats to those who wanted them. **

**P.S. REVIEW. REVIEW. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!**


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